Beaubier does the double at Road Atlanta – MotoAmerica

MotoAmerica 2025

Round Two – Road Atlanta, Georgia

Images by Brian J. Nelson

Superbike Race One

Cameron Beaubier put in a masterful wet-weather performance throughout the opening MotoAmerica Superbike race at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, setting the two fastest laps of the race and taking his 10th win in the class, as well as his first wet-weather win on the BMW M 1000 RR. That proved enough to hold off Jake Gagne and was a portent of the rest of the weekend…

Beaubier led every bit of the race, but not without pressure. Gagne latched on to the back of Beaubier and didn’t let go, trailing the BMW for all 15 laps. Gagne and his Yamaha YZF-R1 were quicker on the first part of the 2.54-mile track, but Beaubier had him covered on the rest, making it difficult for Gagne to get close enough to attempt a pass.

Those two cleared off at the front, leaving Josh Herrin to finish third, some 12 seconds behind. Herrin rode mostly alone, but a mistake allowed Sean Dylan Kelly to close in and almost beat the defending MotoAmerica Superbike Champion. At the finish line it was Herrin by just .147 of a second over Kelly.

Benjamin Smith put in an impressive ride to a Superbike career best finish of fifth. Smith battled with and beat Richie Escalante by 1.1 seconds.

The Real Steel Honda pairing of Hayden Gillim and JD Beach ended up seventh and eighth, respectively. Danilo Lewis and Ashton Yates rounded out the top 10.

Bobby Fong ended up 11th after crashing out of third place and remounting to score five valuable points.

The top four finishers were mounted on four different makes of motorcycle: BMW, Yamaha, Ducati, and Suzuki, and after three races in the 2025 MotoAmerica Superbike Championship, Beaubier leads Jake Gagne by nine points, 70-61. Herrin is third, 27 points behind Beaubier and four points ahead of Kelly. Fong rounds out the top five in the title chase, three points adrift of Kelly.

Beach, meanwhile, keeps his unbeaten streak alive in the MotoAmerica Superbike Cup, with three wins on his Stock 1000-spec Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP.

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Cameron Beaubier – Race One Winner

“I was just trying to stay focused on every part of the track. Like Jake (Gagne) said, there are some corners out there that will just catch you. You feel like you’ll go through the same as you did the lap before, and your front tire will push right out from under you. Down into turn three, I knifed the front a couple times in the sighting lap session and also in the race. Then, where I fell over in the sighting lap session, there a couple times I had the front kind of push around a little bit. So, I definitely had my spots where I felt like I could roll around pretty good, and then other spots where I had to be really careful. I saw zero on my board, and then I started looking at Jake’s pit board. I saw our gap growing and I felt pretty comfortable at that pace. I knew Jake wasn’t going anywhere. So, I didn’t try to ride over my head. I just tried to stay in my lane. I figured something happened towards the end, but I felt like just with how sketchy the track is, it would be pretty tough to make any passes. I feel like we could hardly go any faster than we were going. I’m stoked just to get a good rain race under my belt on this bike, a good win. This is my first rain race win on the BMW. We’ve had some tough days on this thing in the wet, so that felt really good to feel good on the bike.”

Superbike Race One Results

Superbike Race Two

Beaubier and his Tytlers Cycle Racing BMW M 1000 RR nailed the holeshot and wasted little time gapping the field in Race Two, and would go on to end his weekend with two victories – one in the rain on Saturday, and Sunday’s race in the dry.

The man who came closest to matching Beaubier was Bobby Fong, clawing into Beaubier’s lead mid-race and keeping the pressure on to the finish, where he eventually ended up 2.3 seconds behind at the completion of 19 laps.

Fong was safe in second, with some 10 seconds in hand over Josh Herrin, who matched his third-place finish from Saturday.

Sean Dylan Kelly was fourth, some three seconds behind Herrin and another three seconds ahead of Fong’s teammate Jake Gagne. Gagne, had his hands full in the closing laps with Kelly’s teammate Richie Escalante. Escalante ended up just .197 of a second behind Gagne at the finish line.

A day after earning his career-best Superbike finish of fifth on Saturday, Benjamin Smith raced to seventh on Sunday, holding off the fast-closing twosome of Hondas ridden by Ashton Yates and Hayden Gillim. Yates and Gillim came up a bit short and finished eighth and ninth, respectively.

Tenth place went to JD Beach, who in the process kept his perfect Superbike Cup record intact with a fourth straight victory.

With two rounds and four races in the books, Beaubier leads Gagne by 23 points, 95-72. Herrin is third with 59 points, three more than Fong. Kelly rounds out the top five with 52 points.

Cameron Beaubier – Race Two Winner

“Today being able to win with a little gap there felt awesome. It seems like this place brings good racing, good battles. It’s hard to get away from people here in the past compared to other tracks. So, I was pretty happy with being able to run away a little bit at the beginning. I was looking at the timesheets and I knew Bob (Fong) had really good pace on used stuff every dry session we did. He showed it there. Towards the end of the race, he was bringing that gap down. Truthfully, I was in management mode a little bit, but when I tried to start going again, the gap wasn’t opening. If anything, it was staying the same or coming back down. So, hats off to Bob. Hats off to Josh (Herrin). They ran really good. It’s going to be a long, tough season. I’d say especially yesterday that race felt so good for me, getting the first win on the BMW in the wet, especially after the struggles we’ve had on the thing the last couple years in the wet. So, overall, amazing weekend. Awesome to have my wife and kid here, running amok in the pits. It’s been a fun weekend.”

Bobby Fong – Race Two Second

“It’s cool to get on the podium. It would be nice to get my teammate up here. Two Yamahas would be nice. But battling with these two guys, I think it’s going to be a long year. It’s going to be a lot of fighting with (Josh) Herrin and Cam (Beaubier), and I’m sure Jake (Gagne) is going to be up there along with them four guys. It’s cool to get some points. I’ve always done pretty well here over the years even though I definitely dislike this place as well. But we’re going to keep the ball rolling. I definitely made a step in the wet from last year. I’m definitely happy about at least yesterday, our forward momentum in the wet. We’re just going to do some work from here to Road America, and then we got possibly some concessions on the Yamaha. Hopefully, it will pay off a little bit at Road America. But I’m happy with the team, honestly. On a Sunday leaving to the airport, it’s a nice feeling knowing that you had a decent Sunday. There’s no worse feeling going to the airport and you had a sh*&^ weekend. It’s nice to put the Progressive Yamaha up here.”

Josh Herrin – Race Two Third

“I don’t want to be finishing third, but leaving the second race way, way better off than we were last year makes me happy. I want to do better and want to get closer to Cam and Bobby, but you got to take what you get sometimes and be happy with it. I almost threw it away there in the chicane. I was really frustrated with myself but luckily was able to put it back on track and pull back away from SDK (Sean Dylan Kelly). I think the team and I both… I think they expected a little bit more this weekend, but this has never been a track that I just went well at without really trying super hard. So, it’s not just one of those tracks that comes easy to me on this bike. So, for me, I was just wanting to survive the first two rounds and to leave here with as many points as we have, and especially to climb back and get two podium finishes in the rain now after two years of a lot of struggling in the rain feels super good. I know that we have that in our back pocket now, so I’m not going to be stressing out if there’s bad weather coming in the forecast. I’m just excited to keep going for the rest of the season. I think the only track that I kind of have a question mark in my head for this bike is VIR, but every other track we seem to roll good at. I’m excited to keep going. Got a lot on my mind this coming month because the twins are due in about a month. It’s getting pretty stressful. But try to go back and put in as much work as we can and be ready for Road America.”

Superbike Race Two Results

Superbike Championship Points

Supersport Race One

For all practical purposes, Jake Lewis led the entire Motovation Supersport race on Saturday afternoon at Road Atlanta with the Yamaha YZF-R9-mounted Kentuckian in control despite the challenge of being on rain tires on a track that was drying quickly.

But just like that, PJ Jacobsen, who like Lewis and the rest of the field was fighting the challenge of racing on badly worn rain tires, passed Lewis on the back straight and held him off through the final set of corners to snatch victory on the last lap.

At the finish line, it was Jacobsen winning the 13th MotoAmerica Supersport race of his career by just .371 of a second over Lewis, who was disappointed to come up short in Supersport, it was hard to be anything but pleased with his day as he’d earlier won the Mission Super Hooligan National Championship race.

Tyler Scott was third, barely beating Cameron Petersen, with the South African crossing the line just .055 behind Scott. Mathew Scholtz was fifth and it cost him the lead in the Motovation Supersport Championship as he slipped 13 points behind Jacobsen after three races, 65-52.

Lewis is now in a tie for third in the championship with Josh Hayes, who was ninth after an off-track excursion proved to be costly.

Scholtz started the race from pole position after breaking Garrett Gerloff’s Supersport lap record from 2017 with his 1:27.746 in Q2.

Sixth place went to Kayla Yaakov with Max Van, Blake Davis, Hayes, and Aiden Sneed rounding out the top 10.

PJ Jacobsen

“With racing, I feel like I’ve been in positions where someone else is in front of me the whole time. Then you’re just studying them the whole race. Jake (Lewis) looked back at me a few times in the back straightaway, one or two times shaking his head. I wanted to give him a go at some point, but it was good. He rode really, really great. The whole thing with that race was trying to manage the tire as well, because it felt like ice after four laps and the track just started drying out so fast. So, it was definitely like slicks by probably the fourth lap. It was a difficult race and I was managing it with the throttle control. There were certain points in that race that I wanted to ask for a bit more throttle and try to have more goes at Jake, but I was sitting there basically like a yo-yo the whole time. It was managing the tire for both of us, because there were parts where he slowed up a little bit too and then re-attack. So, I thought it was a really great race. I thought that he really deserved the win today but, unfortunately, I had to heartbreak him there at the end.”

Supersport Race One Results

Supersport Race Two

Mathew Scholtz more than made up for his disappointing Saturday result on Sunday with a resounding Motovation Supersport victory. It was his second victory of the season and 10th career Supersport win.

PJ Jacobsen rebounded from a poor start to finish second to his championship rival. Early in the race, it looked as though Jacobsen would give back a horde of points to Scholtz, who was streaking away at the front.

Jacobsen kept fighting until eventually passing Scholtz’s teammate Blake Davis to take over second, keeping his points loss to Scholtz down to five points after gaining 11 on Scholtz on Saturday.

Jacobsen leads Scholtz by eight points, 85-77, after four races. In finishing second, Jacobsen kept his podium-in-every-race streak alive with his fourth successive podium.

Davis earned his second podium of the season with his third-place finish, 1.2 seconds behind Jacobsen.

Tyler Scott was a fighting fourth, crossing the line just ahead of Cameron Petersen. Jake Lewis was sixth, a day after finishing a close second to Jacobsen. Josh Hayes was seventh, a second ahead of Torin Collins. Kayla Yaakov and David Anthony rounded out the top 10.

Mathew Scholtz – Race Two Winner

“I actually don’t know what happened there. We were so far off with the setup. In the full wet conditions, I felt really confident. In the dry, I kind of felt that we had the pace that we should win. But those mixed conditions on the wet tires getting to full lean angle, something was just happening there with the setup. We hadn’t figured that out yet. Obviously, it’s a brand-new bike. So those were just one of the conditions that we had never tested in. So, kind of learned a hell of a lot yesterday. It was a painful lesson after breaking the record during qualifying two, looking forward to the race and coming in fifth place. I think we were 9.8 seconds back, so we got absolutely smashed. Made a couple changes overnight. Today, I had some pretty decent pace going. It sounds like there was a hell of a lot of trouble back in the pack, so that suited me well. Got off to a pretty decent lead early on. I think PJ (Jacobsen) kept it consistent at 3.3 seconds for two laps. So, I kind of started worrying slightly there. I managed to put down a 28.1 about halfway through and opened it up half a second. Then it was smooth sailing from that point on.”

Supersport Race Two Results

Supersport Championship Points

Stock 1000 Race One

It’s often said that the rider you want to beat the most is your teammate. Andrew Lee followed that line of thinking to a tee on Saturday with a last-lap, last-corner pass on his Orange Cat Racing teammate Jayson Uribe that earned him victory in the first Stock 1000 race of the season – by .009 of a second.

Uribe led the entire race until the final lap. Pole-sitter Lee never led a lap… until the final lap. And it ended with a photo-finish. The win was two-time class champion Lee’s first since his victory at Barber Motorsports Park in 2019, and the 12th of his career. He was understandably emotional.

A distant third place went to Ashton Yates, with the Georgian getting the better of JD Beach, who ended up fourth in his first-ever Stock 1000 race. Yates was some two seconds clear of Beach at the finish line with the pair running in a Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP formation for most of the race.

Deion Campbell was fifth after emerging from a battle with Eziah Davis, and Josh Waters.

Christopher Durbin, Stock 1000 rookie Rocco Landers, and Emanuel Nicolás Aguilar rounded out the top 10.

The race was red flagged almost immediately when Bryce Kornbau and Taylor Knapp crashed through the esses in separate incidents.

Jayson Uribe

“I have no idea, honestly,” Lee said when asked how he managed the last-lap pass. “Jayson (Uribe) was riding such a good race. There was a moment I had over (turn) five that kind of put me in a spot where I didn’t think I could make it. I just kind of tried to hit my marks and I got a good draft off of him. I sent a little bit of a Hail Mary. It worked out. I didn’t want to do anything too risky the first race of the year. I really can’t thank my team enough. Orange Cat and Alpha BMW have really put a bike underneath me that we can go out there and win races. It was almost like I was never going to do it again, so it’s nice to be back. It just kind of validates all the work I’ve put in and the time off. Sitting on the couch watching people I want to be racing. Orange Cat took a risk taking me back onto the grid. I’m happy that I could put them on top of the box.”

Stock 1000 Race One Results

Stock 1000 Race Two

Jayson Uribe turned the tables on his teammate Andrew Lee with a victory in Sunday’s Stock 1000 race, the two bright orange BMW M 1000 RRs flew in formation out front of the pack from the get-go, with Uribe leading for the duration.

Lee kept him honest throughout, coming up two seconds short at the finish. Lee had beaten Uribe by just .009 of a second in race one with a pass on the last lap in the final corner on the last lap.

With the pair splitting wins in what is the opening round of the Stock 1000 Championship, the Orange Cat duo is tied at the top of the championship point standings with 45 points apiece.

Ashton Yates finished third for the second straight day, 6.3 seconds behind and some three seconds ahead of JD Beach, who matched his fourth-place finish from Saturday’s race. Bryce Kornbau rounded out the top five on his Yamaha YZF-R1.

Jayson Uribe

“Honestly, I just can’t thank my whole team, my whole crew enough,” Uribe said. “My family is out here. I’ve got this beautiful BMW provided by Alpha Racing, Orange Cat supported. Thanks everybody for all the help. Honestly, I was just trying to ride my own race. I was trying to look at my lap timer and just be smooth, be consistent. I knew I was going to have at least somebody behind me, so I just tried to minimize mistakes and just ride smart. Just happy to bring it home.”

Stock 1000 Race Two Results

Stock 1000 Championship Points